Posted on 12/16/2014 5:30:05 AM PST by elhombrelibre
MOSCOW — The ruble’s value continued to slide on Tuesday despite the Russian central bank’s extraordinary effort to defend it, inducing further panic in the nation’s financial industry and presenting President Vladimir V. Putin with an acute new set of political and economic challenges.
Scenes that Russians hoped had receded into the past reappeared on the streets: Currency exchange signs blinked ever-changing digits, and Russians rushed to appliance stores to buy washing machines or televisions to unload rubles.
“We are seeing an economic crisis,” Natalia V. Akindinova, a professor at the Higher School of Economics, said in a telephone interview. “We are seeing a sharp devaluation of the ruble at a time when the central bank doesn’t have the reserves to influence the market, as it did in the past crises.”
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Traders suggested that they had been spooked by concerns that the cronyism and opaque insider dealings that have long plagued business here had spread to monetary policy.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Back to drinking anti- freeze,comrade!
Yep. As of this posting, $1 = 72.9866 rubles.
www.xe.com
The Ruble is turning to rubble.
Toilet paper.
Maybe Russia can join the EU./s.
The governments and dictatorships ruling over the so-called BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — agreed to set up a new world bank that analysts say could further marginalize the increasingly unstable U.S. dollar, possibly helping to eventually dethrone it as the global reserve currency. Meeting in Durban, South Africa, last week at their fifth annual summit, the socialist and communist-minded BRICS regimes also announced their support for creating a new world currency and full-fledged global governance.
Russia's Imperial-in-all-but-title Putin kept talking about the weakness of the U$D all the way through March of 2014 but now has little to say about the actions of his own central bank. Given the history of how fragile the Russian economy has become after the international sanctions and drop in oil prices, it will be interesting to see how Putin attempts to handle the internal repercussions. Strong Man icons fall when their feet of clay are washed away. Will the same thing happen to Putin? Can Obama handle such a crisis on top of all of the rest?
this
And Putin is losing his shirt.
If the Russians decide they’ve had enough of Putin, the best thing the US can do is let them work it out. Also, I believe, like you I’m sure, Obama is leading on this crisis like all others - from behind. He may not even know it’s happening yet.
Time for the crippling blow. Congress should pass a law declaring Russia a terrorist state, with the sanctions that come along with that. The EU should also pass a similar declaration.
Two currencies that had a bad year — The Ruble, and the BitCoin.
It’s trading at 64.51 at btc-e at the moment.
btc and ltc are taking a beating as the rooskies are cashing out..
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